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How Louisville hero Luke Hancock celebrated his title night

Eric Prisbell, USA TODAY Sports
8:59 a.m. EDT April 9, 2013

Louisville Cardinals guard/forward Luke Hancock (11) celebrates with guard Peyton Siva (3) after Louisville won during the championship game in the 2013 NCAA mens Final Four at the Georgia Dome. Louisville Cardinals won 82-76.(Photo: Bob Donnan, USA TODAY Sports)

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Luke Hancock was the unlikeliest Most Outstanding Player in Final Four history

ATLANTA — The unlikeliest Most Outstanding Player in Final Four history snakes his way around boisterous, delirious men, women and children inside the JW Marriott ballroom early Tuesday morning, stopping exactly 36 times to pose for pictures or sign autographs.

"Damn," sighs an exasperated Luke Hancock, wearing a crooked national title hat and admittedly overwhelmed by newfound fame that the 23-year-old won't shake the rest of his life. Hours after becoming the first non-starter in NCAA history to win the MOP award, he puts his arm around a USA TODAY Sports reporter, urging him and girlfriend Kaycee Loucka to follow the Louisville junior through a sea of fans celebrating their first national title since 1986.

This fan base was starved for a national title for two reasons: It had been 27 years since the school won one and just one year since that other school from Lexington, Ky., cut down the nets.

"You saved us! You saved the whole season!" a middle-aged woman with a cardinal painted on her cheek bellows.

The University of Louisville players commented on their NCAA Championship win over University of Michigan saying that the game was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a dream come true.
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Coach Rick Pitino, the first coach in NCAA history to lead two different schools to national titles, has coached more talented teams. He successfully managed egos while stewarding the 1996 Kentucky national championship team, one of the most dominant teams in the modern era. Leading this team required a deft touch to bring the players even closer together following the gruesome injury suffered by Kevin Ware in the Elite Eight victory against Duke.

Two hours after the basket was lowered so Ware could clip a strand from the net inside the Georgia Dome, the guard stands on crutches near the hotel elevator, head down with a net around his neck.

"I promised I would not cry tonight," Ware says. "I did cry."

Ware says he was spent emotionally and deeply touched by how his team sought to deliver the Atlanta area resident a national championship. He likes to say that this group is so close that they all "came out of the womb together."

***

Ware heads to his hotel room a few moments after Pitino, sounding as if he was losing his voice faster than Michigan lost its 12-point first-half lead in the national title game, greets hundreds of red-clad fans with a simple message that encapsulated this team: "Four years ago, we built a brand," he says. "Our brand was Louisville first. The back means nothing! The front means everything!"

The crowd roared and snapped pictures.

Billy Donovan, one of Pitino's prized pupils, said by phone this weekend that Pitino is an "extremist," someone who sees more potential in individuals than they see in themselves. Donovan, who noted that he would be surprised to see the 60-year-old Pitino retire now, acknowledged that winning a second national title at a different school would be a special way to go out.

Louisville forward Luke Hancock speaks during a news conference after the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game against Michigan.(Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP)

Tom Jurich, Louisville's athletic director, says he simply won't allow it, adding, "He has got no options. He has got no options. I make that call on that one."

Pitino is happy, even if he now has to make good on a mid-season promise that he would get a tattoo if the Cardinals won the national title. Senior guard Peyton Siva says Pitino will get tattoos of a cardinal bird and the year 2013 on his back. It has been a good year, and Monday included a double dose of emotional highs.

"If right now, if you don't wish you are Coach P, something is wrong with you," guard Russ Smith says. "He is so lucky. It's just crazy."

He and his son Richard, newly hired at Minnesota, were at a downtown hotel early Monday for Pitino's Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction. Pitino, who has taken three different schools to the Final Four, was overjoyed and so was Richard, who said, "It's almost like this overshadows tonight's national title game."

It did not. After a season defined in part by unsightly games and low scores, Louisville and Michigan staged an entertaining, up-tempo contest short on whistles and long on fun. Whatever Michigan's Spike Albrecht could do – 17 first-half points – Louisville's Hancock matched, and at the most opportune time.

Trailing by 12 points with three minutes to play in the first half, Hancock made four three-pointers before halftime to narrow the deficit to one. That spurt was the game-changer, and the fifth three-pointer by the George Mason transfer with 2:47 to play swelled the Cardinals' lead to 10 points.

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Luke Hancock celebrates during the second half of the 2013 NCAA men's championship game. He tied a career high with 22 points and was named Most Outstanding Player.
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Hancock encapsulates the DNA of this team: a do-it-all reserve who is good enough to start but content not to so long as the team wins. And early Sunday morning, away from the Georgia Dome confetti and the press conferences, Hancock knew his life never would be the same.

Amid the chaos of Louisville's post-championship celebration with its fans, Hancock finally found an escape from the cameras and squeezed his way into an overstuffed elevator, apologizing to the 13 others inside.

Once Hancock is inside Room 612, at 2:35 a.m., he finds Siva lounging on one bed watching ESPN. And he finds peace among the 11 people in the room littered with backpacks, sandwich boxes, cell phone chargers, gym shorts and three half-filled Gatorade bottles on the night stand. Amid the mess is the detailed, multi-paged Michigan scouting report that Hancock and Siva had pored over the past two days. (Hancock politely declines a reporter's request to see the scouting report.)

Standing near the mirror, Hancock explains how perfect his first three-pointer felt just as he hears the unmistakable voice of Dick Vitale on the television praising his hot shooting. A small smile emerges on Hancock's face.

His girlfriend Kaycee interjects that when Hancock kept making threes, "I screamed so loud I almost fainted. I literally lost all my air."

The Louisville guard got the honor of ceremoniously cutting down the net after the Cardinals' NCAA championship win.
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Siva's father, Peyton Sr., sits on the floor as the television flashes to the scene at Louisville, where thousands have taken to the streets.

"Luke, look at this!" Kaycee screams.

"I wish I was there in the middle doing this," says Siva, holding both arms over his head.

Hancock, who had just grabbed a quick shower, slips on argyle socks and yells, "I can't wait!"

"Hopefully my car is safe," Siva says.

***

The fans in the streets were delirious because Hancock followed his 20-point performance against Wichita State in the national semifinals by tying a career-high 22 points against Michigan. He made all five of his three-point attempts against the Wolverines. The performances were even more impressive when considering what has been on Hancock's mind.

Hancock says his father, William Hancock, is "very" ill, but declines to elaborate on the nature of the sickness. Hancock says he has been aware of the illness for a long time but that it has become worse recently.

"It was really tough," Hancock says. "I didn't want to put it out there just because I didn't want him to have any added pressure to be here. I felt if I didn't tell anyone then he wouldn't be thinking, 'I've got to be here.' But it meant a lot that he was there."

Hancock's mother, Venicia, says she felt all day that Hancock was calm based on his text messages – a calmness she says he gets from his father.

After winning the national title, Hancock remains calm. Now past 3 a.m, he says he has one goal: Stay up all night.

He is still trying to grasp exactly how all this has happened, reflecting in his mind how he went from a solid player at George Mason to a player Cardinals teammates elected captain before his first game with Louisville to a person who men, women and children are hounding in the middle of the night for autographs and pictures.

From Siva's heart to Ware's spirit, Pitino's second national title team is a consummate team, fueled by emotion and belief as much as talent and strength. As Ware would say, out of the womb together. And fittingly, the backbone is a reserve who will now forever receive star treatment anywhere the Cardinals colors are honored. In Louisville, Hancock will never have to buy another drink again.

"I hope not," Hancock says before heading into the night. "That is the plan."